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So it’s crunch time for toilet transportation. I’ve got visitors coming this weekend and I’m leaving on Tuesday. This does not leave much time to get my toilets in order. This morning I woke up just before noon. After a quick shower I packed my gear and was on my way to the Obi to get me my German toilet. My plan was thus

with these boxes I got from the supermarket

take the tram to the Obi – walk one hundred metres to the M10, change at Landsberger Allee, jump on the M4, then walk to the Obi (also one hundred metres).

pick up the toilet, make sure the boxes fit, buy some tape, bring everything back home (in the reverse of step two)

pack it up good and tight

walk it over to the DHL store – about three minutes toiletless walk from my place, maybe four with

ship toilet

Boxes, top and bottom

Today was a lesson in adaptability. Things did not go according to plan.

1. it was snow raining the whole day. I’ve been in country for over three months and it’s rained only five time. Today was the worst. I wanted to do this around noon when the trams would be less busy. With the crappy weather, everyone was packed into the streetcars – no one wants to bike on a day like today. Too dangerous.

Rain

2. I got to the Obi and there was a DHL guy making some deliveries. I asked him if there was a depot location close by. I thought that maybe I could do the whole thing right there. He told me there’s one that was a five-minute walk away. Nice.

3. I thought of first buying the toilet and then going searching for the DHL store but that seemed much worse than doing a sortie to map out the distances. The weather was really miserable and I wanted to minimize my time outside. My getting lost carrying a toilet around the streets of Berlin would make a great blog post, but not today.

4. DHL store was two hundred and sixty paces from the Obi – right where the guy said it was – about a five-minute walk. They only take cash so I had to find a bank machine. There’s also a weight restriction of twenty kilograms or the price jumps a lot closer to the why-are-you-doing-this-to-save-five-dollars category. I did a practice run last week and bathroom scale from the store said fifteen.

5. Cash acquired, I made my way back to the Obi. I found some duct tape – eleven euros – what a rip off. The same thing in Canada would have been less than five. I also got a blanket for three euros – protect the toilet!

6. I tested it out and the the boxes fit. Next, I bought all the stuff – total cost is only forty-two euros.

7. At the Obi just after the checkout they have a station where people can pack up the toilets they want to ship to Canada. I took full advantage of this service.

The pack station and the gear.

8. It took about ten minutes to wrap everything up.

Blanket

Lots of tape.

9. The finishing touch was to add a couple of handles to make transportation a little easier. Man I hope this thing is not broken when it gets to Ottawa.

What's your handle, good buddy?

10. The walk to the DHL store was without incident. It was snow-raining even harder and I was worried that the toilet will be damaged by the water.

11. At the store the clerks were pretty humourless. That is until I told them what was in the box (they asked if it contained any explosives or firearms). We weighed the package and it came in at….

The scale!

That was close / 1969, what a good year.

12. I filled out the appropriate paperwork and the toilet was sent on its way. Sixty-eight euros for shipping.

Total non-recoverable cost:

68 shipping
28 toilet
8 duct tape
————-
104 Euros.

Exchange-rate wise I did well by waiting until late to do this. Compared to the Loonie, right now the Euro is in the toilet (pun intend).

I’ve been meaning to write a post on the German toilets (Heufeld included! question: was it a red toilet or was the bathroom red? I have this in my mind for some reason). I leave for Canada in two hours so I’ll have to visit another time. I love it here so I will be back! LG!